


Heavy Burden

by Takara_Phoenix



Series: Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles [38]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Fussing Alec, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Jace, Secret Relationship, Slash, worried Jace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 19:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13278402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takara_Phoenix/pseuds/Takara_Phoenix
Summary: Alec is fretting about the Inquisitor coming to New York. For one, because he was the head of the Institute and wanted to do right. For another, because he was breaking the Law and dating his parabatai.Jace calms him down again.





	Heavy Burden

Shadowhunters || Jalec || Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles – Heavy Burden || Jalec || Shadowhunters

Title: Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles – Heavy Burden

Fandom: Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments

Disclaimer: All rights to the Shadowhunters show reserved to Ed Decter, the books the show is based off and its characters belong to Cassandra Clare. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: m/m, fluff, hurt/comfort, protectiveness

Main Pairing: Alec/Jace

Shadowhunters Characters: Jonathan Christopher 'Jace' Wayland, Alexander Gideon 'Alec' Lightwood

Summary: Prompt: "hurt/comfort, mutual pining, our favorite pair of parabatai taking care of their bruised, bloody selves..." for Jalec. Alec is fretting and Jace calms him down again.

**Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles**

_Heavy Burden_

Jace knew Alec wasn't doing well with the pressure. Well, with _this_ particular kind of pressure at least.

Imogen Herondale was due for a visit to the New York Institute, to personally congratulate them to their victory over the Circle.

Alec was, to put it bluntly, scared shitless. Not that he showed it. But Jace could _feel_ it through the bond. He could feel how much Alec was wrecking himself about this.

Jace knew why.

Somehow the Clave, in their unfathomable wisdom, had decided to change heads for their Institute _a lot_ in the past half year. Robert and Maryse, Lydia, Aldertree, Imogen, Jace, Alec. Honestly, part of Jace marveled at the fact that the Institute hadn't come apart by the seams with how unstable their leadership had been.

And while they _had_ won under Alec's leadership, Jace knew that if not for Robert putting pressure on them, they would have switched leaders _again_ already during the war. So a part of Alec was nervous that a personal visit from the Inquisitor would mean another change in leadership. After all, the way Alec had become leader had been a bit… Grandma hadn't been happy about it, so to speak. She _had_ picked Jace to be the leader and he had stepped down the second he got the job to instead appoint someone she explicitly had not wanted as head.

(Part of _Jace_ still wondered why she hadn't just stepped in and undone the decision. Part of that part of Jace hoped it was due to a minimum of trust he might have already earned from his grandmother.)

Alec had been harassing everyone into cleaning every last inch of the Institute, having everything be top notch. Everything needed to be perfect, not a weapon out of place.

 _But there was more_.

And Jace knew it.

It was actually less about _the Inquisitor_ coming over, it was more about _Imogen Herondale_ coming over.

Jace bit his lips to hide the tiny grin.

Alec was nervous about Jace's grandma. And that was partially cute. That part being where Alec wanted to earn her approval and respect, because she was Jace's only biological family left alive.

The other part made the tiny grin on Jace's lips die. Because Alec had the very, very reasonable fear that she might find out that Jace and Alec were _more than just parabatai_. That they were lovers. That they were breaking the Law.

It was still incredibly fresh. Well, them being together. Them being in love with each other…?

Jace hadn't _noticed_ at first. He had absolutely no concept of love. Love meant pain and fear to him, but the Lightwoods were so _different_ and so _confusing_. He had nothing to go with what he was feeling for Robert, Maryse, Isabelle, Alec and Max. He could only label the feelings according to what he was told they ought to be. It became increasingly confusing when, as a young teenager, he noticed that his feelings for Alec _wildly_ differed from his feelings for Isabelle.

So he had suggested for them to become parabatai. Because surely _that_ might explain it? That the two of them were closer than brothers, it was a sign that they should become parabatai.

And there was not a doubt in Jace's mind that this was what it had to be. After all, Alec looked at him the very same way, with the same level of adoration and importance that Jace assigned to Alec.

Magnus Bane had made Jace realize that maybe he had misplaced and mislabeled his feelings, because suddenly things shifted. Priorities shifted. _Gazes_ shifted. And for the first time, Jace saw Alec look at _someone_ else with the gazes that were _his_. And when the two got together, two things happened.

Jace realized that the feelings he had deemed to be special and overwhelmingly intense and possessive due to them being parabatai… well, those feelings were actually _romantic love_.

The other thing that happened was that Jace _truly_ understood the pain of love, because seeing Alec happy _with someone else_ broke his heart into a million pieces.

That they had a war going on and his family tree seemed to be changing by the minute was not helping his emotional turmoil any either.

Clary had been a wonderful distraction, at first. But it had also made everything worse, because for the first time, Jace had felt like he was losing Alec.

Little did he know that all of that had only happened because _Alec was feeling the very same_. Alec had hated seeing Jace look at Clary with the looks that should be reserved to Alec. Alec had hated feeling like losing Jace to Clary.

Months and a war passed and their relationship and bond took a hiccuping journey to a better place. Avoiding the main problem had not exactly helped in healing their bond though.

It all came crashing down on them hard when Jace had died and the bond had been fully severed.

It had broken something very delicate in both of them, even more so than the bond. For the very first time, losing the other had become something tangible. They could assign attributes to it now. The bitter, metallic taste, the smell of misery and burned flesh, the tight grip on their hearts, the emptiness in their chests.

 _They could lose each other_.

And neither of them was even remotely okay with that. And as Alec, Magnus and Isabelle came stumbling toward him and Clary at the lake, something happened within the both of them. The bond snapped back into place, but somehow too tight, pulling them closer and closer and without even realizing, without being able to tell who moved first, they were in each other's arms and doing the one thing both of them had longed for for so long - they kissed.

Retrospectively speaking, they could be lucky that only people they trusted had been present, but neither of them had half a mind to think about consequences in that moment, because the person they loved more than anything else on this planet, their other half, was standing right there, alive, breathing and within reach.

So yes, Jace's and Alec's relationship had shifted significantly and into dangerous territory. But neither regretted it. They loved it, every stolen second, every lingering glance, every shared kiss, brief hug. It was easily chalked up to them being parabatai that they were so physically affectionate with each other.

But Imogen Herondale was not just Jace's grandmother, she was also the Inquisitor. She was going to spend a lot of time with Jace and with Alec, in both of her functions, and if she deemed their physical affections too close for comfort, if she saw something no one was supposed to see, then the two of them could very well lose far more than just Alec's position as head of the Institute.

 _They could lose each other_.

And that? That was what truly scared Alec. Scared Alec to the bone and made him harass everyone into being on their best behavior, made him lose sleep and instead train at odd hours, train to the point of collapsing.

"Alec. _Alec_ , stop it."

Jace glared as he caught his parabatai's arm. Alec halted, muscles locking. His knuckles were bruised and bloodied where he had been hitting the punching back for the past two hours now. Jace's glare darkened and Alec averted his eyes. Alec knew exactly what he was doing and he knew exactly that his lover was not approving of this self-destructive streak.

Hah. Talk about irony.

"Normally, I'm the self-destructive one in this relationship and you're the reasonable one", stated Jace softly, jokingly.

Jace tilted his head up to lock eyes with Alec and just as the archer was about to say something, his words were caught in his throat. Alec stared wide-eyed into the liquid gold of Jace's eyes. A small smirk played on Jace's lips as he activated an iratze rune for Alec. Yes, Jace had been training to focus his angelic powers. Because he needed to be able to use them beyond life-or-death situations. And he was getting pretty good at it.

"You look like an angel when you glow like that", whispered Alec in awe.

Jace glared, trying to mask the blush on his cheeks. It didn't work. Alec stared at him longingly. Sighing, Jace went to get a towel and wet it some so he could gently remove the crusted blood from Alec's hands.

"You're an archer. You need those. Try not destroying them", grunted Jace pointedly. "Also, I'm quite fond of them myself."

He leered up at Alec playfully, this time around managing to make Alec blush. It was good that it was ass o'clock in the morning and they were literally the only people awake at the Institute.

Without another word did the two of them make their way to Jace's bedroom. Even as he opened the door, Jace turned around to face his parabatai and before the door was fully closed - risky, they knew, but there were no cameras here and no one was awake - they were kissing. They stumbled toward the bed together and collapsed on it once the back of Jace's knees hit the bed. He laughed softly as Alec landed on top of him.

"I love you", stated Jace evenly, grasping Alec's face. "And _everything_ will be alright. Even if she notices, even if she puts us both on trial, even if they derune us, _I will always be at your side_."

"I love you", whispered Alec back. "Always."

Jace smiled pleased. The two lazily adjusted to get comfortable on the bed while kissing, curling together around each other. Jace laid his head to rest on Alec's chest, listening to his parabatai's even heartbeat, while Alec started playing with Jace's hair nearly absentmindedly. It was a gesture that calmed them both down equally. It was good to listen to Alec's breathing evening out until the archer fell into a peaceful slumber. By the time Jace fell asleep, he was pressed up against Alec's chest, curled together on top of it, his parabatai's arms wrapped tightly around him, holding him close. They had perfected the art of sharing a bed and then being ready and leaving the room casually together, as though one had woken the other up to discuss business. No one was any wiser and neither would Imogen be once she arrived, because they knew how to hide their relationship.

Whatever would happen tomorrow, they knew they had each other.

_~*~ The End ~*~_

**Author's Note:**

> I am now posting my tumblr-drabbles on here, so if this seems familiar, that's because I already posted it on my tumblr ([takaraphoenix](https://takaraphoenix.tumblr.com/)).


End file.
